Isabella and Jonathan had a beautifully simple winter wedding that befitted their relationship perfectly. They met, got engaged, and married all in the space of just over a year (I believe) but seem as though they've been together forever.

Jonathan MADE the wedding rings and Isabella's engagement ring. Originally, she had a fancy diamond ring that was custom made by a jeweller in town, but it was stolen in an airport, so Jonathan decided to make her a new one! Since he is a dentist, he was able to utilise his skills and the skills of a colleague to handcraft a ring for Isabella. And then, you know, because that was so straightforward, he decided to make the wedding rings too!

After a lovely, personal ceremony and morning tea, we headed out into some beautiful winter light for portraits (the very beginnings of spring had just appeared on the trees that week), and then into the warmth of Etrusco for the reception. As this was an early ceremony, for the first time ever I got to see the bride and groom drive off into the sunset!

Well, I was going to blog the house, but I have this wedding ready to blog, and I can't wait to put it up for Julia and Cameron to see. I shot this just after getting back from the UK, and it was such a great start to the winter here for me. A really glamorous, high energy wedding with lots of fun, and funny people.

Julia and Cameron live in Tairua on the Coromandel, a world away from Dunedin, but Julia's family are based here, and they planned a beautiful winter wedding in the heart of town. If you're going to get married in winter, you may as well do it properly and it was a COLD, frosty day down here - it would have been all rubbish and mild up north. The ceremony was in First Church, with the reception at the Savoy, the perfect warm winter wedding venue.

Some really gorgeous touches at this wedding. Julia and Cameron had SIX Morris Minors as wedding cars, all in different colours. I loved the black and white stripe theme that ran through the bouquets, the ties, the car ribbons, the church. Julia's amazing 1950s style dress with fur shrug. Highlight of the day though for me was the surprise pre-dinner comedy bingo..

My last wedding of the summer season, and an utterly stunning day. Greig and Rachel are two of the loveliest people, welcoming and down to earth, and they managed to pull off a day that was beautiful and full of stylish details.

Rachel is pregnant, with a baby due in September, so she had a gorgeous dress made to show off her (tiny!) bump. I think most pregnant brides go for a simple empire line gown, but I really admired Rachel collaborating on such a fun and totally unique design. Amongst all the little details at the reception marquee, there was also a black and white photograph of baby's 20 week scan.

Rachel and Greig are dairy farmers, and the wedding was set in rural Waimate, with a ceremony at the little stone church in town, followed by a reception at Centrewood Estate, with its beautiful big autumnal trees. To top off the day.. our run of beautiful sunny weather continued, with a bright warm day and a starry night. LOTS of children at this wedding, including 4 flower girls and 4 page boys. Very cute...

Trudy and Ben live in Auckland but returned to Dunedin to get married surrounded by family and friends. ALL of Trudy's siblings married in the very same church in East Taeiri! We were a little worried about the weather since once you live in Auckland for a while you get a bit soft and can't handle the cooler temperatures, but Trudy and Ben's wedding day was absolutely stunning - the sun stayed out all day long. Actually we've had incredible weather here for about two months now.

After the ceremony and some mingling, we headed out for some creative location shots, and luckily Trudy's parents live adjacent to a beautiful little apple orchard. I tell you what, if I could shoot in an apple orchard, in autumn, at that perfect hour before the sun starts to set, every week, I would be a happy chap. The light was BEAUTIFUL. After that we headed to the yacht club since Ben is into his boats, and we captured the sunset. I have to say, it wasn't so warm anymore at that point!

Oh and Trudy and Ben are really into their sweets (lollies if you're an NZer!) so they made all the bouquets out of.... sweets!! I was a little hesitant when I heard that initially, but they looked amazing. The girls had great restraint and only ploughed into them at the reception.

Once again I've been blessed with a couple who are utterly into eachother, and madly in love. Beautiful!

It's been a funny kind of a day, so I feel like I need to blog this totally and utterly gorgeous wedding and remember what a beautiful day this was, and how incredibly lucky I am to do this.

Marilyn and Ryan contacted me a while back to ask about photographing their simple, quirky wedding at Grandview Gardens in Outram. Marilyn described the day to me and I instantly wanted to say "yes, however it works, I want to photograph your wedding."

The day would start early in the morning (10am people, is VERY early for me), with a garden ceremony surrounded by close friends and family. Most of whom would travel from places like Singapore, Canada and Australia to spend time in NZ with Marilyn and Ryan. Afterwards, they would drink teas from vintage china cups, and set up an outdoor photobooth and an indoor scrapbooking area. Guests would be photographed with props, and then be able to create a personalised scrapbook page for M&R with a huge range of papers and bitty things to be found neatly arranged on the tables inside.

Marilyn and Ryan live in Singapore, which is, obviously, quite hot. Dunedin isn't necessarily that warm... so guests were advised to be weather aware! The wedding morning was beautiful though, sunny, with that autumn crispness and magical light. Two of the loveliest people I've had the pleasure of photographing had their simple ceremony, and then we all had some fun with silly photographs, scrapbooking and icecream cake. Marilyn and Ryan insisted I do a scrapbook page myself, and I have to admit, it was probably one of the best ones there...